In the last few weeks there have been property TV shows about housing in Australia and New Zealand seeming to be encouraging emigration. One of them even lists the vacancies at the end. Are these sponsored by the Australian Government? Seems an odd thing for a TV station to do, although money talks. Who’s paying?
I’ve been to Australia several times and spent well over a year there in the last 20 years. It’s a great place and life is good, but on the other hand I’m British and leaving for good has never appealed. It’s a very long way to go, a point that is only realised when you reach Singapore after a mammoth flight and find there’s another 8hr flight to go. Aus is big on sport, mainly rugby and swimming, and I do like a bit of a run but the rest of my recreation is here and I haven’t thought I could find the same there in such a concentrated area.
These TV programmes are being shown in January and it looks very bright. The Aus sun is so brilliant it makes home look dark even in the day. I used to love it but I grew some cancerous lesions that needed cutting out and now don’t go out in it without full armour. We still go as my wife has family there, but only in their winter now and the sun in Queensland is still bright. I notice Phil in the show doesn’t wear a hat in the sun - obviously not Aus trained.
Overall the living is good in Aus but to me there is a lot more breadth and depth to life in Europe mainly due to concentration of populations and age, if that provides things that interest you. It is possible to be a ‘boomerang Pom’ who like both places and get homesick for both and come and go, I’ve developed a sort of affinity with being there.
I watch the debate about Aus being a republic and don’t really want it to happen. On the other hand it isn’t anything much to do with me. Having read some of the alternatives and I can understand why it’s not easy for them to make the move. Questions like is the head elected by the electorate or parliament or senate, or appointed and who by, power or no power, how long etc. My own thought is they should just change the flag and leave other things as they are. Canada changed its flag and it isn’t apparent to the wider world that the Queen is still head of state. Their PM appears at all international functions under the Maple Leaf and how many look deeper. Canada does like to establish it’s own identity though as it has a big neighbour. So maybe just the flag, no worries anyway.